http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/sep/01/full_court_propaganda_press
Sep 1, 2006
Full Court Propaganda Press
By Stirling Newberry
If anyone needs to know whether or not we live in an era of biased,
and indeed untrustworthy press, the ABC has sealed the deal - having
decided to run hard right wing propaganda under the title "The Road to
9/11" which is filled with lies, distortions and fabrications.
Clearly the right wing is absolutely desperate in the face of what
could be an electoral wipe out in November, as Americans remain
unimpressed with the paltry job creation of the present economy.
Equally clearly, the owners of the major networks have so little
regard for the American public that they feel they can simply shovel
unadulterated extremism and call it a "docu-drama."
Even the films director admits it wasn't a documentary - but the
network is billing it as one.
It is already being heavily promoted by Rush Limbaugh as "zeroing in
on the shortcomings of the Clinton Administration."
The reasons for this crass affront to all standards of ethics, decency
and news reporting are fairly clear.
The American public doesn't buy that Bush is doing a good job fighting
terrorism.
The mid-August bump that came with the terror plot news from Britain
has already faded with the summer heat.
Hence bald faced lying has become the order of the day.
AP "economics" writer Jeannine Aversa, in a miracle of mendacity,
tried to say that "hiring had perked up" in August.
From a revised July of 121,000 to 128,000, in an economy with
135,500,000 payroll positions is statistically insignificant.
No detail of the the news seems to be too small, or too checkable, to
lie about.
The word for Aversa's lede graf is "crassly dishonest", because no one
who is that innumerate could operate a telephone, which would be
required to work at the AP.
It is no coincidence that this 9/11 smear job comes out at the same
time as faked allegations that "war protesters" kidnapped a marine at
gun point.
Only the hardest of the hard core haters can be motivated at this
point, and they are only moved by the most unvarnished of agitprop.
Another example of smear is the formation by Republicans of a youtube
"Democratic" group which purveys naked attacks on soldiers.
The need for the "stabbed in the back" mythology to hold the military
shows that even the Republican core is tired, and there is no fact, or
even perversion of fact, that will do the job of motivating them.
For those of us who cover the poor state of the economy for people who
work for a living, the hate filled nature of the right wing is
constantly on display - harrassing phone calls, personal threats and
assorted other nonsense from derranged minds are part of the hazard of
saying obvious things like "the United States has failed to establish
a working state in Iraq" and "real wages are falling."
That the public has caught on that their paychecks are short, that the
war is long, and that the Republicans in power are to blame for this
is clear from the poll numbers - consumer confidence, disapproval of
Bush and the Republican Congress, wrong track sentiments are all
pointing to an American public that does not believe that the present
ruling party is capable of handling the job.
So when a party's negatives are high, the only thing that they can do
is drive the other party's negatives even higher.
ABC intends, in effect, to make a massive undeclared contribution to
the Republican Congressional campaign and call it "free speech".
Well speech it is, but with trillions in tax breaks for the wealthy,
it certainly wasn't free.
______________________________________________________
Which proves that a rat (and its friends) will do anything to escape
when cornered.
Harry
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